Bloggers and twitterers are discussing the implementation of real name registration in Baidu's micro blogging platform, Baidu Shuoba. Some speculated that Baidu, the largest search engine company in China, is connected to the government ID Data base, as the verification of the Baidu Shuoba requires a complete match of the identity card's name and number.
Prominent blogger William Long wrote in twitter:
百度说吧可真够恶心的,注册个“说吧”居然还要身份证号码,你以为自己的开公安局的啊,用户的身份证信息如果泄漏这责任谁来负责,如果有人用这些身份证来做坏事谁来监管?
百 度说吧对于用户身份证的验证非常特别,其后台可能连接了中国居民身份证的数据库,用户输入的身份证号码必须和姓名完全对应,才能通过认证,这说明了百度说 吧有可能和政府机关进行了深度合作。另外,在百度说吧不能随便“关注”人哦,在双方都互相关注下,对方可以不经许可得到你的手机号码。
WL:The verification system in Baidu Shuoba is very distinctive, it is possible that there is a backdoor connection to the Chinese resident data base. It requires a complete match between the ID card and ID name for verification. Baidu is working closely with the government on this. Moreover, don't follow people spontaneously, once there is a mutual follow relation, the follower will get your mobile phone number.
Zhengyun, another IT expert, picked up the discussion and pointed out that Baidu, like most of the local search engine, has always been connected with the GFW filter run by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). In his tweets he said:
看来实名上百度说吧真的安全风险很大。劝各位IT人士莫去做小白鼠。尤其是各类维权人士,小心注册后十分钟内警察赶到。
关于百度搜索引擎与工信部有一个接口,会把搜索关键词提交给这个接口,『帮忙判断一些敏感词的结果是否合法』,这层特殊处理是工信部要求国内各大搜索引擎都必须加的,包括原来的谷歌中国,包括bing。工信部随时可以加关键词黑名单和域名黑名单,控制自如。
Zhengyun: Baidu search engine has a connection with the MIIT, which handles the sensitive words and helps to ensure that the search result is legal. This special arrangement is a requirement sent to all search engine companies in China by the MIIT. Even Google and Bing was used to comply to such arrangement. The sensitive words and blacklists are controlled directly by MIIT.